Lionel Nowell, Holly Keller Koeppel and Luc Jobin will join the board once BAT, which produces cigarette brands Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Benson & Hedges, has completed the purchase of the remaining 57.8 per cent of Reynolds’ shares. BAT had been a shareholder in Reynolds since 2004 before making the move.

Former PepsiCo executive Nowell served as lead independent director of Reynolds from January this year, after a decade on the board.

Koeppel is an experienced infrastructure investor, who previously worked at Citigroup and currently serves as senior adviser to investors Corsair Capital, while Jobin is chief executive of the Canadian National Railway Company.

BAT chairman Richard Burrows said: "Following closing, the Reynolds business will immediately become a key part of the BAT Group.

“Each of these new directors brings to the board complementary skills and valuable experience of the US business environment and, in particular, the US tobacco sector.”